52 OSGODBY GRANGE FARM JUN / JUL 2023 • farmers-mart . co . uk
52 OSGODBY GRANGE FARM JUN / JUL 2023 • farmers-mart . co . uk
DOUG ’ S NO-NONSENSE APPROACH TO FARMING
Chris Berry talks with arable and beef finisher Doug Dear of Osgodby Grange
FAIR game to those who made the decision to put up a discussion topic that brought about a full house at the Pavilions of Harrogate on the Great Yorkshire Showground in March .
Future Farmers of Yorkshire is a fresh organisation that clearly has its finger on the pulse , and the title of the spring debate ‘ Is regenerative farming the answer for all UK farmers ?’ was seized upon with relish by no nonsense arable and beef finishing farmer Doug Dear of Osgodby Grange near Selby who was in irrepressible form as he stressed the basics of farming as a business .
I spoke with Doug more recently , since that night and he reiterated what he ’ d said while adding more .
“ At the end of the day if we ’ re not making money we aren ’ t going to be farming and the next person that comes along after me may or may not be harder on the land than we are .
“ I would say we are regenerating the soil and we do care about wildlife , it ’ s just that we are also hard-faced businessmen and it ’ s not all about nature . We are production based and I ’ m not ashamed to say it .
“ We are not mucking about laying hedges and ponds , and I don ’ t fanny about with margins , so basically all my margins have ended up in a 40-acre block of red clover so that I can get some use out of it . I ’ m still getting the benefit of wildlife and I ’ ve a nice big block of clover which is protein for the cattle .
“ I don ’ t really think we need to over-complicate something that ’ s very simple . I ’ m not getting tied up in knots with all these AB15 two-year nectar mixes and inspections all for tuppence ha ’ penny at the end of it .
“ We ’ re not doing a Holkham Hall where we put the whole estate down to wild nectar mixes because we can and bollocks to the tenant farmers that are on there .
“ You don ’ t have to physically get a spade out to do the regen bit . You can tell when your soil ’ s in good health because it doesn ’ t slump . It looks right . People make a science out of this and it ’ s basic farming . They make a big deal out of it all .
Doug says he makes his decisions on what happens on his farm based on what is right on the day , much the same as many others .
“ We decide what ’ s right on the day . We do a lot of min-till . If we can take a pass out , not because it ’ s regenerative but because it ’ s efficient then that ’ s what we do . As soon as the combine is out of the field we are on with our winter rotation and the Simba SLD is in the field .
“ We work it and it gets left for 6 weeks . We put the green fertiliser on and spray it . The weather does the work of the power harrow and then we just whack it with a 6-metre Vaderstad in two passes and got the best seed bed we can . I don ’ t think you can be any more efficient than that even if you strip till because you ’ re
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“ We do care for the soil and we do the absolute bare minimum of cultivation to get the best output . We have about 6000 tonnes of muck to put on the soil and 2000 tonnes of sewage sludge . I call it something else that you can ’ t publish . And I ’ ve just invested in an all singing , all dancing variable rate muck spreader , which means we can dial it in .
“ We know the nutritional value of both products blended together and can tailor what we ’ re spreading on the land to fit the crop , and that has taken it to the next level .
Doug says he is a great believer in muck for producing good crops .
“ I haven ’ t put any P & K on for 25-30 years . We put a lot of ammonium sulphate on first pass and then we go straight to Ns , so we are making massive savings . And the soil and fauna is responding , as everything is , to the muck .
“ People say that on paper muck doesn ’ t look that good . We don ’ t care what it says on paper , I couldn ’ t give a chuff . If you grow crops on muck they ’ ll outperform everything by half a tonne .
“ Our muck is not majorly high in nitrogen and we don ’ t want it to be really , because we can get ourselves into bother . But obviously you ’ re getting all the benefits of the P & K the N and trace elements . If you do a good blend of manure and our muck , I ’ m sure a scientist would say this is what you need to grow a crop .
Doug is not reliant on any schemes and he enjoys that this means he doesn ’ t have a plethora of people showing rules and regulations in his face .
“ I really like that we ’ re not getting every form of payment going forward because nobody has a hold on you anymore . I don ’ t have to listen to people . I can do it my way . I know that we have to farm responsibly but at least the likes of the Rural Payments Agency can ’ t come in and say you need to do this .
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